DAMIAN Green’s response to Ian Blackford’s observations and question on the parlous state of Yemen tells one all one needs to know about the morality of our Conservative Government ("UK has made £4.6bn arms sales to Saudis since Yemen war began", claims SNP", The Herald, November 30). His chiding of SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford on who profits from the arms deal with Saudi Arabia distancing the Government from involvement in the matter ignores the fact that it is the Government which grants export certificates thereby sanctioning the sale of armaments. These arms are being used to kill innocent civilians including women and children in an unequal war being fought between different sects of the same faith.

The suggestion that there is no Government or Establishment involvement in promoting arms sales to Saudi Arabia is an insult to the intelligence of anyone who can read a newspaper. The time-barred publication of Cabinet papers from the Margaret Thatcher era confirmed just how instrumental she was in securing arms deals with the Saudis.

The worst part of Mr Green’s reply was to link the Saudi arms sales to British jobs, the inference being that it was irrelevant how many innocents are being murdered, British workers, British jobs are sustained by the trade, fewer Brits are unemployed and a drain on society. In a nutshell he summed up the moral vacuum at the heart of Tory policy – it doesn’t matter how many citizens suffer through the introduction of Universal Credit, it doesn’t matter that thousands of elderly and infirm have met a premature death through cuts in social services, it doesn’t matter that more and more people rely on food banks to survive. There is no apparent concern that the Office for Budget Responsibility is leaking out a bit at a time just how dire the future will be for most of us as we crash into the Brexit shambles created by internal Tory Party strife that some attribute simply to impending EU tax-avoidance legislation. All that matters to them is money and as we all know that unless they (not us) want to renovate a palace, fund a royal wedding or build aircraft carriers that have no planes there isn’t enough of it, not even enough to stop people dying.

I despair when I witness the smug complacent performance of the likes of Mr Green yesterday in Westminster, as it simply confirms that things will never change.

David J Crawford,

85 Whittingehame Court, 1300 Great Western Road, Glasgow.

FIRST Secretary of State Damian Green says "the UK had one of the most rigorous and robust defence sales regimes in the world". Are politicians totally unable to speak honestly? The long list of vile and loathsome regimes we have been selling to for 50 years makes a mockery of his simplistic comments. It's all about a lack of morals, money, bribery and corruption.

If he would take the time to read the history of his own arms dealing department then the phrase "defence sales" is a sick joke. Selling weapons to kill, maim, destroy and create orphans is a revolting and disgusting industry unfit for the 21st century.

Brian McKenna,

Overtoun Avenue, Dumbarton.